Lenovo: MSPs and CSPs, PLEASE come buy our servers

We've got lots of market share and revenues to plug the IBM-shaped hole

Chinese PC ruler Lenovo has arrived at the cloud and managed services provider party relatively late, with a sales programme tucked under its arm and an expanded x86 server portfolio brochure in hand.

The biggest purveyors of the fluffy white stuff already have their designs custom built by ODMs in the Far East - a point not lost on HP, which has responded with the Cloudline fleet via its venture with Foxconn.

It is highly likely Lenovo will target a tier of customers below that, with plenty of managed service providers (MSPs) and so-called born-in-the-cloud businesses continuing to spring up, and the data centres hosting their services thus expanding.

The move follows the buy of IBM’s collapsing x86 division, the firm said, and the programme will include discounted stock available from disties, and the usual range of co-op marketing and biz dev funds.

Price-conscious Express bundles are also included in the scheme, along with “special rate incentives on Enterprise Solutions Services” to speed deployment, Lenovo told us.

A credit element, Kickstart, will be rolled into the scheme that allows SP’s to defer payments for 120 days, as will Rent & Grow — loans — and a trade-in service for eligible products, but only the if MSPs and SPs are credit worthy.

Wilfredo Sotolongo, veep for the Enterprise Business Group, said in a prepared remark that the deal for Big Blue’s System x operation put it in a position to be able to compete.

“Managed services spending in expected to triple in the next few years,” he said.

The need to spread its vision to different markets and customers is vital for Lenovo following what turned out to be a disastrous last year for System x under IBM’s ownership.

Shipments for Intel-based systems for both Lenovo and IBM combined declined 14 per cent year-on-year, revenues slumped 26 per cent, and market share dipped to 21 per cent from 27 per cent.

An industry source told us server demand from the service provider community had been "going like a train” but reckoned “there is a lot of capacity out there, and these companies need to fill it".

“The [MSP and cloud] sectors are reaching a point of saturation and when a market matures there is consolidation.” ®